The Stranger and its animal na essays

The Stranger and its animal na essays Albert Camus' The Stranger starts with the death of a mother, maybe. Her son, Mersault, is unsure. He is also oblivious to the concepts of marriage, God, and repentance, as well as other institutions of society. According to social law, this is reason to execute him for a senseless murder. Mersault discovers that he is going to be tried and eventually die because of his nature and not due to the act he committed. Society is the collected human interaction and thought, and it requires that a social being worries about the afterlife, repents for its bad deeds, and mourns at one's death. However, Mersault thinks differently, and does not follow society's norms. Instead, he acts and lives like an animal. Mersault tries to survive in a society that is not suited for him. He attempts to abide by its rules, but such an animal can never be tamed. Mersault does not grasp the idea that he is an outsider and he always will be, just as society will never understand him. Mersualts' situa tion is similar to Jean-Paul Sartre' s view of the individual. He believed that one is "situated in a massive and oppressive social structure which limits and alienates his activities" (9). Mersault finds that his animal-like lifestyle and views about life contrast dangerously with the world around him. One of the main reasons Mersault was executed was because of his treatment to his mother. "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe. I dont know" (3). Those are not the thoughts of a disillusioned son mourning his deceased mother, but of a unfeeling, beast-like character. Her death was insignificant to him, but it could not have been otherwise. In the wild, when a mother dies, its offspring does not think anything of it as long as it is old enough to get along with out her. Mersault did not need his mother anymore, and so he acts uncaring towards her death. This is why he put her away in the house, in addition to the reason that he did not ...